OB Sports Golf & Leisure

l PGA TOUR REPORT OB SPORTS GOLF & LEISURE x SUMMER 2014 x obsports.com clinching putt for Europe at the Ryder Cup. Before and since, his face was more likely to be seen on the side of a milk carton. Follow- ing his brief run at No. 1 in the spring of 2011, Kaymer's skills, con- fidence and results plummeted. Not until the Players did he re-emerge. Enduring a roller-coaster final round, Kaymer double-bogeyed the 15th and nearly rinsed his tee shot at 17. Summoning his inner Langer, Kaymer drained the year's best putt so far, a 29-foot, left-to-right breaker for par at 17, then parred 18 in near darkness. He went wire-to-wire again at Pinehurst, without any soul- searching or drama. He lapped the field in such lopsided fashion, winning by eight shots, it recalled Tiger Woods circa 2000. Nice guy Martin Kaymer wins mid-season Player of the Year. BUBBA BASH David Letterman and the rest of the free world fell head-over- heels for Bubba Watson in 2012. Wielding that hot pink driver and executing a hooked wedge for the ages from the pine straw, Bubba grabbed his first green jacket. Unfortunately, 2013 seemed like one big hangover. He finished 44th on the money list, posted just two top 10s and one of them, at Hartford, was marred by his pub- licly rebuking his caddie for what he apparently thought was a bad yardage/club selection. Which Bubba would show up in 2014? Fortunately for golf fans, the good Bubba. Though he blew a late lead at the Waste Manage- ment Phoenix Open, missing a 5- foot par putt at 18, he rebounded in spectacular fashion the very next week, scorching storied Riv- iera for 64-64 on the weekend to win the Northern Trust. He was runner-up again in March at the WGC-Cadillac at newly toughened Trump Doral's Blue Monster, then blitzed the field at Augusta to win his second Masters. Young Jordan Spieth chased ad- mirably, but with Watson display- ing his unique brand of "Bubba Golf," he slammed the door shut, notably with his "how-did-he-do- that" towering fade at the par-5 13th, a drive of 366 yards that left him with a only a wedge for his second shot. It's golf that World No. 1 Adam Scott calls a "freak show," and it's why Bubba Watson is great for golf – and one of the year's great stories. THE KID It seems as if 20-year-old Jordan Spieth is a huge story every week. It's hard to believe that as of mid- June 2014, he still has only one PGA Tour win. It's not for lack of trying, however. fi ONLINE EXTRA! CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW JOE PASSOV ON TWITTER TIGER, RORY AND PHIL G olf, and golf fans, are much poorer for the relative absence of the three dominant figures on the PGA Tour. Woods, who's been out of action since early March due to back issues, announced that he'd be returning to competitive golf at the Quicken Loans National at the end of June, presenting the likelihood of him playing in the year's two remaining majors. McIlroy's soap opera of the past year has revolved around contract squabbles, management disputes, equipment changes and, of course, a broken engagement. He's shown signs of pre-2013 greatness, winning the BMW PGA at Wentworth in May, but he hasn't displayed any real consistency. Mickelson may be entitled to a letdown after his career-capping British Open vic- tory in 2013, but no one saw this 2014 on the horizon. Stats show that every aspect of his game, especially chipping and put- ting, is off from last year. Lefty has coaxed flashes of brilliance, but so far, no top 10s. Golf will go on – always has – but we're hoping, or cheering, really, that the spot- light will shine on this triumvirate soon. AND THEN THERE'S…

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